purifying the soul, it is ascribed to the water and to the Spirit. For this illumination of the Holy Ghost is, indeed, the inward baptism of the Spirit; but, in the primitive times of Christianity, the baptism of water, on account of the supposed concurrence of the Spirit, was commonly called the illumination, and the solemn seasons appointed for the celebration of this mystery, the days of illumination or light. And in the very same manner, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is by John Baptist called, the baptism of fire, on account of the wonderful influence it has in illuminating and purifying the soul. It is, to be sure, a celestial fire, quite invisible to our eyes, and of such a nature, that the secret communications of it to our souls cannot be investigated. But the sum of all is what follows. It seemed good to Infinite Goodness and Wisdom, to form a noble piece of coin out of clay, and to stamp His own image upon it, with this inscription, " The earthly son of God:" this is what we call man. But, alas! how soon did this piece of coin fall back to clay again, and thereby lost that true image, and had the inscription shamefully blotted out! From that time, man, who was formerly a Divine creature, and an angel clothed with flesh, became entirely fleshly, and in reality a brute : the soul, that noble and celestial inhabitant of his earthly body, became now quite immersed in matter, and, as it were, entirely converted into flesh, as if it had drunk of the river Lethe. Or, like the son of an illustrious family, carried away in infancy to a far country, it is quite ignorant of its present misery, or the liberty and felicity it has lost, becomes an abject slave, degraded to the vilest employments, which it naturally and with pleasure performs; because, having lost all sense of its native excellency and dignity, and forgotten its heavenly original, it now relishes nothing but earthly things, and, catching at present advantages, disregards eternal enjoyments, as altogether unknown, or removed quite out of sight. But if in any particular soul, either from some spark of its native excellency still remaining alive, or any indistinct report that reaches it, some desires or emotions towards the recovery of its native liberty should arise; yet, as it has no sufficient strength of its own, nor finds any way open that can lead to so great a blessing, these ineffectual wishes come to nothing; and the unhappy soul having lost its hopes, languishes in its chains, and is at last quite stupified. Philosophy, as we have already observed, perceiving that man was born to higher views than this world affords, attempted to raise him from his present dejection, secure his claim to heaven, and restore him to a conformity and likeness to God; but in vain. To redeem the sons of man, and restore them to what they had lost, it was necessary that the eternal Son of God should come down from heaven. Our fall was easily brought about, but our restoration was a work of the greatest difficulty, and only to be performed by the powerful hand of God. There are but few whom the exalted Father of spirits has loved, and Christ has raised up to heaven. He is the source whence the Spirit of God flows down to us; fountain of that new life and sanctified nature, by which we mount towards God, whereby we overcome the world, and, in consequence thereof, are admitted into heaven. And, happy, to be sure, are those truly noble souls whose fate it is to be thus born again, to be admitted into the choirs of the holy angels, and to be clothed with those glorious robes that are whiter than snow! They will follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and he will lead them to the crystal streams, and even to the fountain of life itself. He is the But all those that are to be the attendants of the Lamb in those blessed pastures which are to be met with in his heavenly country, must, of necessity, even while they live in this lower world, be followers of him in his humble innocence and purity. This spotless, holy, and pure Lamb of God, is the guide and shepherd of a pure and holy flock, a flock dear to God, and of distinguished beauty; but "the shepherd is still more beautiful than they*." But the impure goats and uncleanly hogs * Formosi pecoris custos formosier. he beholds at a distance, and leaves them to unclean spirits, to be possessed by them at pleasure, and afterwards to be precipitated into the depth of misery; unless it be determined to deliver some of them from that shocking form, by a wonderful and Divine change, and to convert them into lambs, which is ef fected in proper time by the influence of the Holy Ghost. Whence they are called the holy, pure, and Divine sons of God; and all love to earthly things, all carnal, impure affections, are banished out of those hearts, which are, as it were, temples consecrated henceforth to God: "For the dwelling place of the Holy One must be holy also*.” LECTURE XVII. Of TRUE FELICITY and ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. O How insipid and unsatisfactory are all the pleasures of this earthly life which we now live, in respect of that incomparable and altogether heavenly delight which attends the meditation and contemplation of Divine things! When mortals are thus employed, they eat the bread of angels: and if there are any who do not relish the sweetness of this food, it is because the Divine part of their composition is become brutish, and, forgetting its original, lies buried in earth and mud. But though the soul is reduced to these woful circumstances, it is not yet so entirely divested of itself, but it still retains some faint remains of its heavenly original and more exalted nature; insomuch that it cannot acquiesce in, or be at all satisfied with those fading enjoyments wherewith it is surrounded, nor think itself happy or easy in the greatest abundance of earthly comforts. And though, possibly, it may not be fully sensible of what it wants; yet it perceives, not without some pain and uneasiness, that something is still wanting to make it happy. The truth is, besides that great and unknown good, even those whom, by an abuse of that term, we call most happy, are in want of a great many things. For, if we look narrowly into the condition of those who are arrived at the highest pitch of earthly splendour, we shall certainly find some defect and imperfection in it, and be obliged to conclude with the poet, "That since the earth began to be inhabited by men, a full cup of good things, without any mixture of evil, never fell to the share of one man; a graceful body is often dishonoured by bad morals, and a mind of uncommon beauty is sometimes joined to a deformed body *," &c. But what we call the chief and supreme good, must of necessity be complete, and entirely free from every defect; and therefore, what is not in every respect perfect, properly speaking, is not perfect at all. The happiness of rich and great men, which the poor admire and respect, is only a gaudy and splendid species of misery. What St. Bernard says of the rash and ill-founded opinion which the generality of mankind form of the lives of the saints, from the imperfect knowledge they have of them, "They see our crosses, but they see not our comforts," may be here inverted: we see the advantages of those men that are puffed up with riches and honours, but we see not their troubles and vexations. "I wish," says one, "that those who desires riches, would consult rich men ; they would then, to be sure, be of another opinion ‡." I will spend no more time in describing or lamenting the wretched state of mankind on this earth, because it would answer no end. For, suppose a more complete assemblage of sublunary enjoyments, and a more perfect system or earthly felicity than ever the sun beheld, the mind of man would instantly devour it, and, as if it was still empty and unsatisfied, Etenim mortalibus ex quo Tellus cœpta coli, nunquam sincera bonorum Sors ulli concessa viro; quem corpus honestat Dedecorant mores; animus quem pulchrior ornat Corpus destituit, &c. Cruces nostras vident, unctiones non vident. Utinam, utinam qui divitias appetunt, cum divitibus deliberarent; certe vota mutarent. would require something more. And, indeed, by this insatiable thirst, the mind of man discovers its natural excellence and dignity; for thus it proves, that all things here below are insufficient to satisfy or make it happy; and its capacity is so great and extensive, that it cannot be filled by the whole of this visible frame of things. For, as St. Augustine observes, "Thou hast made us, O Lord, for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they return to Thee *.* ." The mind that makes God its refuge, after it has been much tossed to and fro, and distressed in the world, enjoys perfect peace and absolute security; and it is the fate of those, and those only, who put into this safe harbour, to have, what the same St. Augustine calls a very great matter, "The frailty of man, together with the security of God." Therefore, it is not without reason, that the royal Psalmist boasts not of his victories, nor the splendour of his royal crown, but of this one advantage: The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup, Thou maintainest my lot: and, on the justest grounds, he immediately adds, The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psal. xvi. 5, 6. And it is quite agreeable to reason that what improves and completes any thing else must be itself more complete and perfect: so that the mind of man can neither be made happy by earthly enjoyments, which are all far inferior to it in dignity, nor be so in itself. Nay, neither can the angels, though of a more perfect and sublime nature, confer felicity either upon men, or themselves; but both they and we have our happiness lodged in that Eternal Mind, which alone is its own felicity. Nor is it possible for us to find it any where else, but in our union with that Original Wisdom and Goodness, from which we at first took our rise. Away, then, with all the fictitious schemes of felicity proposed by the philosophers, even those of them that were most artfully con * Fecisti nos, Domine, propter te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec in te redeat. + Habere fragilitatem hominis et securitatem Dei. |